Doner Kebabs @ Home

I am so glad you are here right now. This my dear friends, is about to change your life. Forever. Your chicken will never be the same again! If you're looking for a healthy, ridiculously good recipe of chicken, this. is. it. 

I went a little crazy over the weekend and wanted to cook something unique and my heart was set on the Turkish cuisine. 

I ended up making these lip-smackingly, delectable Doner Kebabs at home sans any rotisserie! 

Nothing fancy but so flavourful, I still have the flavours lingering in my heart. Using the traditional spice combinations gave it a beautiful authentic touch, and the good old oven came to my aid to make the perfect, slightly charred, richly aromatic and insanely delicious Doner Kebabs. 

For the uninitiated, Doner kebabs are stacks of meat grilled on a giant rotisserie and then shaved off bit by bit to be served with pita or in sandwiches or wraps. For further info, please wait till your computer connects you to the master of all- google! Doner kebabs are almost akin to the Greek Gyros. I used a couple of skewers to get amazing results but don't worry, you can make these on a grill/ skillet as well. 

I served these Doner kebabs with Cacik -a yogurt based dip (pr. Jajik) and a salad bowl made with Lavash (unleavened flat bread). The salad bowl was the kind of crazy part. I will get into the details on the next post where I will share the recipe for the same. Jumping straight to the recipe of the kebabs now. 

Serves: 4

Time taken: 40 mins + marination time (preferably overnight) 

Complexity: **

You'll need

8 pcs boneless, skinless chicken thighs

6-7 garlic cloves

4 tbsp oil

3 tbsp yogurt

Zest and juice of 1 large lemon

2" pc of cinnamon broken into smaller pcs 

1 1/2 tsp dried oregano 

1 tbsp sumac

1 tbsp smoked paprika

salt to taste

freshly cracked black pepper

1 1/2 tsp red chili powder (more if you like it hot)

a few parsley leaves 

Pinch of love 

Method

Pre plan before you make the kebabs. You'll need to marinate them for 4-6 hours atleast before cooking to get maximum intensity of flavour. Overnight works for me. I just marinate the chicken the previous evening, let the marinade do its work and when I cook it the next day, the results are always spectacular! 

In a mortar n pestle, take your garlic cloves with a pinch of salt and start thwacking. 

In just a couple of minutes you'll get a good garlic paste. 

For marinating, first wash and pat dry your chicken thighs. Chicken breasts would get too dry n chewy, so unless you're grilling them on a skillet, try not using those. I don't usually trim the fat off the chicken, you can very well do so if you please. 

Add that garlic paste to the chicken

Drizzle the oil. Use an oil that doesn't have a pungent aroma, something neutral. 

Spoon over the yogurt.

Zest the lemon over the chicken. 

Add in the cinnamon stick broken into smaller pieces. This helps distributing the flavour better through the marinade. 

Next goes the oregano. Crush the oregano between the heels of your palm before adding to amplify its flavour

The magical middle easter spice- Sumac! This earthy, tangy spice gives these kebabs such an oomph

Smoked paprika to add in that smokey, mysterious heat

The 2 most crucial ingredients- salt and your pinch of love

Time for some more heat- red chili powder- as little or as much as you want

Crack some black pepper over it

The lemon juice of the lemon we zested earlier and we're done! 

Oh hello btw!! See my reflection peeking in the lemon squeezer?! 

Mix everything together throughly so the marinade is coating the chicken evenly. Throw in a few parsley leaves. 

Cover and refrigerate overnight. The next day, before you begin cooking, take the chicken out of the fridge about 30 mins earlier so that the cold chicken doesn't get shocked when it hits the hot pan/ oven otherwise it will shrivel up and dry faster. Sorry for being so bossy! 

Preheat your oven for about 10 mins at 180C or 350F

If you're using the oven, use metal skewers as they heat up and cook the chicken evenly from the inside, so the outside and inside takes the same time to cook. 

Take deep cake tin and line it with foil so cleaning up becomes easier after cooking. Lay those skewers over the pan like so. 

Through those two metal skewers at a distance of about 1 1/2"-2", pierce and mount the chicken thighs. Stack the thighs right up against each other like this. 

Now place this in the oven on the middle rack. Let it cook for 15 minutes one one side and then rotate the skewers 180 degrees and let it again cook for about 20 minutes or till the chicken is all done. Towards the end, you can very well place this on the top rack of the oven to get slightly charred edges of the chicken. You can very well do this over a bbq grill as well, just be careful! Those skewers get super hot! 

Look how perfect these look! Smokey, spicy, charred and so moist! 

Incase you're doing these in a pan, let the pan heat over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Add in the chicken and cook the thighs for 4-5 minutes on each side depending on the thickness of the chicken thigh. 

The ones from the pan also look beautiful, don't they?! Imagine these filling up a wrap with some salad and a bit of cacik.... yumm!!!

Tell me this is not gorgeous!! 

And those juices, thats liquid gold baby! Spoon over some, over each chicken piece. 

Up, close and Personal! 

You can either shave these chicken thighs or serve them individually. 

The moist juicy insides.... I could live on these forever! Just imagine how ridiculously good this chicken would be as toppings on a pizza! 

My crazy lavash salad bowl topped with this doner chicken 

These kebabs didn't last for long! 

The Cacik. Find my recipe here. 

Eating these was absolutely divine! please do recreate them! Indulge!